History

Cambridge University Press Bookshop opened in 1992, but the shop itself has been around for a great deal longer and selling books all the while; since 1581 in fact when it was run by a William Scarlett. The first University printer, Thomas Thomas, was based just over the road on what was Regent Walk and is now Senate House Lawn, in an area that was really the bookselling centre of the town.

Passing from hand to hand over the centuries, 1 Trinity Street was taken over in 1846 by Daniel and Alexander Macmillan who employed their nephew Robert Bowes as an apprentice. He would later become partner and eventually take on the premises.

The shop remained Bowes & Bowes until 1986 when it became Sherratt & Hughes before we took it on in 1992. We are still going strong today, showcasing around 50,000 different titles in the shop and able to get hold of a huge backlist of print on demand editions which get those hard-to-find books right to the people who want to read them all over the world. In 2008 we expanded round the corner into 27 Market Hill where we opened our specialist Education and English Language Teaching shop the following year.

We are proud to continue the fine old tradition of selling books here and contributing our bit to the fine history of 1 Trinity Street.

Here's the original video footage from an Anglia News item on the opening of the bookshop 25 years ago - it's rather different today!